Law Commons^™

Smartphone, Dumb Regulations: Mixed Signals In Mobile Privacy, Christian Levis

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The smartphone has turned a user’s location into valuable information. Users of smart devices can use location-based mobile services to get driving directions, check into social networks, or even see which of their friends are around. But the use of this technology, and the new type of data created by it, raises privacy concerns as to who has access to one's location-based information. Because the only legislation covering this technology, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, is more than twenty-five years old, courts encounter problems when trying to use it to resolve these privacy issues, often reaching illogical results. This Note …

Students' Fourth Amendment Rights In Schools: Strip Searches, Drug Tests, And More, Emily Gold Waldman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Appellate Division, Third Department: People V. Hardy, Whitney Montgomery

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Conflict Of Interests: Privacy, Truth, And Compulsory Dna Testing For Argentina’S Children Of The Disappeared, Elizabeth B. Ludwin King

Cornell International Law Journal

From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship that disappeared an estimated 30,000 suspected subversives, including parents of young children and pregnant women. Their children, either disappeared along with their parents or born in clandestine detention centers, were then taken from their parents and adopted, often by couples who were sympathetic with the government and knew of the children's origins. This Article addresses Argentina's newest effort to identify these now-adult children: compulsory DNA testing in cases where the raising parents are suspected of having knowingly adopted their children illegally. It argues that, although the mandatory testing permissibly …

An Illusory Expectation Of Privacy: The Ecpa Is Insufficient To Provide Meaningful Protection For Advanced Communication Tools, Sara E. Brown

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Anonymous Expression: The Internet's Role In Washington State's Disclosure Laws And The Direct Democracy Process, Karen Cullinane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note proposes that the Washington State Legislature amend its Public Records Act to exempt from public disclosure personal information legally required to be disclosed by signers of referendum petitions. This Note also proposes that the Washington State Legislature designate an electronic system, to be detailed in its election law, by which referendum petitions can be checked for fraud without violating the right to anonymous expression protected by the First Amendment. Part I describes Washington State's referendum process and the path of Doe v. Reed, the case animating the reform presented in this Note. Part II illustrates how the rise …

The Boundaries Of Privacy Harm, M. Ryan Calo

Indiana Law Journal

Just as a burn is an injury caused by heat, so is privacy harm a unique injury with specific boundaries and characteristics. This Essay describes privacy harm as falling into two related categories. The subjective category of privacy harm is the perception of unwanted observation. This category describes unwelcome mental states—anxiety, embarrassment, fear—that stem from the belief that one is being watched or monitored. Examples of subjective privacy harms include everything from a landlord eavesdropping on his tenants to generalized government surveillance.

The objective category of privacy harm is the unanticipated or coerced use of information concerning a person against …

Text Offenders: Privacy, Text Messages, And The Failure Of The Title Iii Minimization Requirement, Seth M. Hyatt

Vanderbilt Law Review

For the past forty years, theory and practice in electronic surveillance have enjoyed an uneasy coexistence. In theory, under ("Title III"), government agents must use wire and electronic taps sparingly, and only under strict judicial supervision. In practice, however, federal courts have recognized countless loopholes and exceptions, leading critics to wonder whether Title III meaningfully limits state investigatory power.

Nowhere is this tension more apparent than in the context of "minimization." Under Title III, government agents conducting electronic surveillance must "minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception under this chapter." They must not listen in on any …

¿Viva La Data Protection? Chile As A Touchstone For The Future Of Information Privacy, Nicola Carah Menaldo

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

This article attempts to uncover a puzzle: although the traditional levers for strong privacy protection are present in Chile - a history of dictatorship, an information technology revolution, and strong trade with the European Union - its data protection laws are in fact very weak. What explains this apparent disconnect? This article challenges the conventional wisdom that Chile's weak data protection regime is the result of weak democratic institutions, collective action problems, or the prioritization of credit data protections. Instead, it argues that Chile's stunted regime results from a political culture in which privacy protections, generally, are traded off for …

Home Is Where The Crime Is, I. Bennett Capers

Michigan Law Review

Think of home. Go on. Maybe not your parents' home, which for this reviewer would be enough to induce heavy breathing and general anxiety. Rather, think about the concept of home. Think about the idea of home. Think about Home with a capital letter. Think of home as in The Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's famous "There's no place like home." Think "home sweet home." Or "home is where the heart is." Go on. Of course, there may be other associations that come to mind when one thinks of home. There's security. Safety. Control. Home rule. After all, in the …

How United States V. Jones Can Restore Our Faith In The Fourth Amendment, Erica Goldberg

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

United States v. Jones, issued in January of this year, is a landmark case that has the potential to restore a property-based interpretation of the Fourth Amendment to prominence. In 1967, the Supreme Court abandoned its previous Fourth Amendment framework, which had viewed the prohibition on unreasonable searches in light of property and trespass laws, and replaced it with a rule protecting the public’s reasonable expectations of privacy. Although the Court may have intended this reasonable expectations test to provide more protection than a test rooted in property law, the new test in fact made the Justices’ subjective views about …

Does Law Matter Online - Empirical Evidence On Privacy Law Compliance, Michael Birnhack, Niva Elkin-Koren

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Does law matter in the information environment? What can we learn from the experience of applying a particular legal regime to the online environment? Informational privacy (or to use the European term, data protection) provides an excellent illustration of the challenges faced by regulators who seek to secure user rights and shape online behavior. A comprehensive study of Israeli website compliance with information privacy regulation in 2003 and 2006 provides insights for understanding these challenges. The study examined the information privacy practices of 1360 active websites, determining the extent to which these sites comply with applicable legal requirements related to …

A Path Toward User Control Of Online Profiling, Tracy A. Steindel

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Online profiling is "the practice of tracking information about consumers' interests by monitoring their movements online." A primary purpose of online profiling is to "deliver advertising tailored to the individual's interests," a practice known as online behavioral advertising (OBA). In order to accomplish this, publishers and advertisers track a individual's online behavior using cookies and other means. Publishers and advertisers aggregate the information, often compile it with information from offline sources, and sort individuals into groups based on characteristics such as age, income, and hobbies. Advertisers can then purchase access to these consumer groups, controlling their selections with such specificity …

Along For The Ride: Gps And The Fourth Amendment, Stephen A. Josey

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

With the advent of new technologies, the line as to where the Fourth Amendment forbids certain police behavior and when it does not has become increasingly blurred. Recently, the issue of whether police may use Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices to track individuals for prolonged periods of time without first securing a search warrant has crept its way into the limelight. The various circuits have arrived at different conclusions, and the question has now found its way onto the US Supreme Court's docket. After analyzing and weighing both Supreme Court case law and public policy considerations, this Note concludes …

Cloudy Privacy Protections: Why The Stored Communications Act Fails To Protect The Privacy Of Communications Stored In The Cloud, Ilana R. Kattan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The advent of new communications technologies has generated debate over the applicability of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement to communications sent through, and stored in, technologies not anticipated by the Framers. In 1986, Congress responded to perceived gaps in the protections of the warrant requirement as applied to newer technologies, such as email, by passing the Stored Communications Act (SCA). As originally enacted, the SCA attempted to balance the interests of law enforcement against individual privacy rights by dictating the mechanisms by which the government could compel a particular service provider to disclose communications stored on behalf of its customers. …

Putting The Shock Value In First Amendment Jurisprudence: When Freedom For The Citizen-Journalist Watchdog Trumps The Right Of Informational Privacy On The Internet, Clay Calvert, Mirelis Torres

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article, which takes the July 2010 ruling by the Fourth Circuit in Ostergren v. Cuccinelli as a point of departure, explores the growing tension between the First Amendment right of Free Speech and the nascent right to online informational privacy. The Article addresses the "shock value" in First Amendment jurisprudence, stretching from Cohen v. California and Texas v. Johnson through the recent ruling in Ostergren. The Article also examines the traditional watchdog function of the press increasingly performed on the Internet by so-called citizen-journalists akin to Betty Ostergren. The Article concludes that while the Fourth Circuit's decision in Ostergren …

The Double-Helix Double-Edged Sword: Comparing Dna Retention Policies Of The United States And The United Kingdom, Erica S. Deray

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Forensic scientists have used DNA profiling technologies to link suspects to crimes since Alec Jeffreys first proposed the idea in the 1970s. Recognizing the potential for using DNA databases to solve crimes and to prevent future crimes, England and Wales attempted to greatly expand its DNA database by allowing for the collection and indefinite retention of DNA profiles from arrestees. The European Court of Human Rights, however, issued a ruling in 2008 in the case of S. & Marper v. United Kingdom, advising the United Kingdom to restrict use of DNA profiles from arrestees and to establish time frames for …

Big Brother Is Watching: The Reality Show You Didn't Audition For, Amy Dillard

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Undermined Norms: The Corrosive Effect Of Information Processing Technology On Informational Privacy, Richard Warner

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The “New Body Snatchers”: Analyzing The Effect Of Presumed Consent Organ Donation Laws On Privacy, Autonomy, And Liberty, Maryellen Liddy

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note examines, in three parts, presumed consent laws as they pertain to organ donation. Part I discusses presumed consent and explains the salient features of presumed consent laws. It then discusses case law that addresses the aftermath of unauthorized organ or tissue harvesting. Part II evaluates the United States Supreme Court's evolving conceptions of the rights of individual and family-based privacy, autonomy, and liberty, for subsequent application to the presumed consent organ donation controversy. Part III analyzes presumed consent laws in light of the donors and their families' privacy, autonomy, and liberty interests. The Note concludes that current presumed …

Pervasive Image Capture And The First Amendment: Memory, Discourse, And The Right To Record, Seth F. Kreimer

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

As digital image technology proliferates in camera phones, iPhones, and PDAs, almost any image we observe can be costlessly recorded, freely reproduced and instantly transmitted. We live, relate, work, and decide in an environment in which pervasive image capture from life is routine. During the last half decade, captured images have come to underpin crucial elements of ongoing private and public discourse; digital image capture has become a ubiquitous adjunct to memory and a pervasively accepted mode of connection and correspondence. Digitally captured images precipitate conflicts between government authority and free expression. From efforts to suppress cell phone videos of …